Have you tried Ice Dying Yet?

Do you like using hand dyed fabric?  I do, and I love the surprise of dying too.  It isn't a great thing to do in the cool of our winter, but I was so inspired by a recent Craftsy class that I did that I had to have a go. 

The first challenge was to find a tub to use.  After quizzing husband Jim, I realised I had the perfect thing for the job.  Then it was just a matter of making loads of ice and finding some wire mesh (in my case left over from making our chicken coupe). 

This is a picture of the tub with the wire mesh.  I took the picture after I finished dying so the dark stuff you see in the tub is the melted ice (now water) and dye mix before I cleaned up.

If you want to try it at home the first thing you will need to do is to collect all your equipment.

• Procion Dyes (I have my own dye kits which I wholesale and retail)
• Mask and gloves (an absolute must)
• Large tub that will hold the water/dye when the ice melts
• Wire that covers the top of the tub you plan to use
• Lectric soda (this is kinder to you than soda ash, but you need much more of it - I use 1/2 a bag in a very large bucket of warm water)
• Spoon that you won't use for anything else
• Fabric for dying.  I use a beautiful cotton poplin which means I need to wash it to remove the dressing that is put into the fabric when it is manufactured.  The great thing about this technique is that you can dye quite big pieces - you are only limited by the size of your tub.

1. You will need to prewash your fabric, then soak it in the Lectric Soda/water mix for at least 1hr.
2. Prepare your tub by laying the wire mesh on the top.  Make sure it won't move about otherwise you could make a bit of a mess.
3. Place the fabric onto the wire mesh.  I kind of scrunched it up a bit.  I have to tell you that the fabric I started with had already been dyed, and because I didn't like the colour I decided to over dye it.  I was able to dye to separate 1m pieces of fabric in totally different colours because my tub was large enough to hold them on the mesh, keeping them separate at all times.
4. Get all your ice cubes and absolutely cover the fabric with ice.
5. Now put on your mask and gloves because you don't want to breathe in the powder of the dye (it's toxic).
6. Open your powdered procion dye and use the spoon (never use it again for anything else) to sprinkle the dye powder over the ice.  You can use more than one colour, which is great because you get the primary and secondary colours on the colour wheel as the ice melts. Avoid using three or more colours (unless they are variations of the same colour) because this will result in brown fabric! (brown is made using yellow, red and blue).
7. Leave your tub in a nice warm room and close the door on it for at least 24hrs.
8. After 24 hrs you can take the dyed fabric and go ahead and rinse it until the water runs clear.  I usually go ahead at this time and stick the whole lot in the washing machine with a cup of salt to set the dye (just in case I didn't rinse real well).
9. Now dry your fabric and enjoy the wonder of Ice Dying.



Fabric drying on my back veranda

I'm going to make a quick video showing the whole process next week, and I will post the link when I get it done.

Now it is time to head to the breakfast table because Jim has made us bacon and eggs!